[3]

Quest Completed!

[Home Sweet Home]

Objective: Make it back to the house.

Slowly pulling himself out of the car, Dante made sure to take a deep breath as he stood on the sidewalk in front of his home, briefly reminiscing on the familiar scents that had always seemed to be prevalent within his neighborhood.

Well, at least as far as he could recall. The boy had also lived here since he was a baby, so he knew quite a few people around the area as well, an older lady waving at him from across the street, to which he reciprocated.

Setting his eyes back on the house he grew up in, Dante felt himself get a bit emotional, his parents standing next to him in a supportive manner. Once the two had become aware of the fact that he was essentially a mute at this point, they had actually started making attempts to learn sign language, which caused a warm feeling to course throughout his chest when he learned about it.

Home sweet home, indeed.

----------

Even though he had eventually gotten past the biggest hurdle of his recovery, Dante would be staying home for at least a couple days, which his parents seemed particularly happy about. Most likely just from a sense of paranoia, which he completely understood. The doctors had mentioned how important it was for his body to rest, so it was like killing two birds with one stone, anyway.

Now, he was just chilling on his bed, using the most recent system reward he had been given to scroll through the most popular social media app known as Lifeinvader, almost overwhelmed by boredom. It was honestly pretty cool, though, the boy thought to himself as he quickly glanced at the description of what it had turned out to be.

[Home Sweet Home]

Objective: Make it back to the house.

Reward(s):

[U.E.D.] - [$2,000] - [Switchblade]

Focusing on the first reward displayed within the list, everything else went away but that.

[U.E.D.] - Also known as an untraceable electronic device, this item pretty much acts just like any other phone. It's just better.

Dante couldn't help but smile at what he had just read, before returning his attention to the Lifeinvader page that just popped up. It turned out to be the account of Tracey De Santa, who he was obviously quite acquainted with. After scrolling for a bit, however, he was genuinely surprised at what he eventually found throughout her posts.

There was a trio of pictures that had been posted within the last two months, with each image containing a familiar-looking blonde, but rather than the shy and relatively quiet girl he knew her as, a seemingly-outspoken and promiscuous young woman met his face, which was scrunched up in bewilderment. It was quite an unexpected sight, to say the least.

Dante remembered the first time he met her, and back then she had been incredibly timid, mostly due to the fact that her dad, who was apparently loaded with money, had moved the whole family to Los Santos to essentially turn over a new leaf or something. He wasn't entirely sure on that, but if his memory served him correctly, then he was pretty sure it had something to do with wanting to live a better life in another part of the world.

Tracey had never really gone into specifics when it came to her backstory and how she grew up, but just from looking at how the girl had seemingly transformed over the span of a few months compared to when he first met her, there was honestly an unbelievable contrast between the two.

The only thing he could really do was internally debate on what the hell might've possibly occurred for such a polarizing shift in her character to appear, because he was genuinely stumped after the revelation. After a while of staring at the pictures of her in different forms of scantily-clad attire, though, he eventually turned his phone off and stepped out of his bedroom, headed towards the kitchen as his stomach began to grumble.

The Lifeinvader profiles of a couple of other people he was associated with had turned out to induce similar feelings as well, so that was great.

He couldn't help but feel a bit agitated too, as a bad feeling coursed through him at the thought of finally coming home, only to realize that everyone he ever knew had seemingly moved on without him in the picture. It just didn't really sit right with Dante, especially after partly using them as a source of motivation to continue enduring the pain he was now constantly living with.

As much as the boy didn't want to further validate that bad feeling, even he had picked up on the fact that the mail and gifts he received within the hospital during his stay there eventually stopped after a while. So, as he walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge in search of sustenance, a forlorn expression slowly crawled onto his face.

Realistically, the kid was on his own either way.

'Nobody in your life is a permanent fixture, son. You're eventually gonna have to learn how to fend for yourself and become a man, so until then, just know that your mom and I will always love you, no matter what.'

Those words had come from his father, who, at some point throughout his life growing up, made sure to tell him that. It always stuck with him, even as he continued to grow afterwards, but it never really hit him within his heart and soul with such power, like it did just now.

----------

At the sound of glass abruptly shattering on the floor, both of Dante's parents rushed into the kitchen in concern, only to find their child dealing with some kind of mental breakdown, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. The boy's mother immediately began her attempts at comforting him, as she wrapped her arms around his body in a loving and caring manner.

Meanwhile, his father had initially just stared at him from the doorway, intuitively scanning his body language and surroundings, scarred hands clenched into fists in preparation for a fight. Coming from quite a rough background, which unsurprisingly included various gang activities due to where their whole family was born and raised, there were certain habits and ways of thinking that sometimes just refused to leave an individual.

It was already bad enough that the man was extremely protective of Dante, which obviously came from being a devoted father, but with him still possessing connections to his past, it was only a matter of time before he ended up making a few discreet phone calls in an attempt to track down whoever might've been involved in the shooting that nearly resulted in the death of his only child.

So far, the results hadn't turned up anything that he could, without a doubt, put a stamp on to rid the world of those fools. However, there were certain things still being checked on, so he would try his best to hang around until then. It was difficult, though, he had to admit.

Focusing on what was in front of him, the man simply held still for a moment, as he couldn't help but admire and appreciate the family he had obtained after all these years of living within a world that was stricken by a curse of unrelenting chaos. He knew that what was currently happening wasn't very positive, what with his son unfortunately suffering from an abundance of things that he didn't have much control over, but he just felt so grateful to be alive.

Finally, after standing off to the side for what felt like a couple minutes, Dante's father moved forward to wrap his arms around both of the people that he loved more than life itself, a wave of strength washing over him as his mind briefly lingered on who could've hurt his son in anger.

----------

Stepping into the Yellow Jack Inn, a tavern located in Blaine County, an eastern-European man takes off his brown coat before hanging it up on a nearby hook that was mounted on the wall, before entering the actual entrance of the building.

Met with a bar that had a couple of other people sitting and drinking as they watched a small television in the corner, he sat down and waved towards the woman who ran the place. Since they were quite familiar with each other already, the man didn't even have to voice what he wanted, as it was eventually brought to him without a word.

"It's good seeing you again, Niko." The woman said, wiping down the counter. "Where did you go off to? It's been a while."

Breathing out a sigh, the man took a swig of his drink before placing it back down, a scowl briefly settling on his face as he recalled the past. "It's a long story, Janet." He replied, glancing at the television before taking another swig. "Enough about me, though, what have you been up to?"

"Well..." She began, as they continued to talk with each other for quite a while, or at least until the bell mounted next to the door rang throughout the tavern, and a crazy-looking guy decided to take a seat right next to Niko. The stranger had immediately set off the alarm bells inside of his mind, but he made sure to play it cool, still occasionally drinking from his mug.

It didn't take very long, however, until the man that Janet had called Trevor began prodding him in a weird attempt to strike up a conversation, which quickly went off the rails once Niko's apparently dismissive tone appeared to hit a nerve. That's when, from seemingly out of nowhere, Trevor's mood switched in the blink of an eye, his natural unpredictability catching him a bit off guard.

However, while Trevor may have gotten the first hit in once a fight between them inevitably broke out due to their conflicting personalities, the tides quickly turned once Niko reached into one of his pockets and suddenly brandished a knife.

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When I was writing this chapter, it honestly just felt a bit all over the place, but whatever. I'm not gonna dwell on it too much.

Also, I bet you weren't expecting that, eh? Yes, Niko Bellic will be in this story.

For some reference, I just want to remind everyone that this is obviously an alternate universe sort of situation. In this, it's currently around 2006, and the ages of both Trevor and Niko are 39 and 28 respectively. I'm not even sure if that's canon, but it feels right to me given the setting I have created. It's not gonna be very important moving forward, though, I'm just saying.